Pavel Büchler

Now and Again

13.6. - 11.7.2015Opening 12.6.2015, 18h

annex14 | Raum für aktuelle Kunst Hardstrasse 245 | CH - 8005 Zürich | T +41 44 202 44 22 | info@annex14.com | www.annex14.comÖffnungszeiten Mi-Fr 12-18, Sa 12-16, oder nach Vereinbarung

Pavel Büchler, Installation View, annex14, 2015

Pavel Büchler, Installation View, annex14, 2015

Pavel Büchler, ‘Malerisch Malevich‘, 2015Penguin Dictionary, canvas stretcher wedges, 7 x 18 x 11.5 cm

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B60 (portrait of woman with purple hair, April 2013), reclaimed paint on canvas, 114 x 92 cm

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B60 ‘Kobleta 1‘, April 2013)reclaimed paint on canvas, 118 x 62 cm

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B57 (female torsdo on brown blue ground, Manchester, April 2013), reclaimed paint on canvas, 121 x 84 cm

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B56 (interior with blue carpet snd house plants, Manchester, April 2013), reclaimed paint on canvas, 95 x 72.5 cm

Pavel Büchler, Installation View, annex14, 2015

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B58 (roadside with hedge and blue ob-ject, Manchester, April 2013), reclaimed paint on canvas, 144 x 157 cm

Pavel Büchler, Modern Paintings No. B58 (Detail)

Pavel Büchler, ‘RPS‘, 2009Ink on paper, 3 parts, each 38 x 28 cm

Pavel BüchlerNow and Again

13.6. – 11.7.2015Opening: Fri 12.6.2015, 6pm

We are delighted to be holding the first solo exhibition in Zurich by the artist Pavel Büchler entitled “Now and Again”. Büchler was born in Prague in 1952, lives in England since the 1980s and teaches in Manchester since 1997. He cur-rently ranks among the internationally renowned concept artists.Pavel Büchler’s biographical East-West coordinates are repeatedly and subt-ly expressed in his artistic work – through his sceptical approach to langu-age and communication, which he enriches with irony and humour, through his precise references to ideological and philosophical systems, and through his preference for literary texts that give expression to the absurdity of the everyday. Striking are the outdated technical media he frequently uses, such as loudspeakers, projectors and typographical techniques, and the traditi-onal artistic media, like the watercolour and ink drawing. Often these evoke nostalgic feelings that strongly contrast, however, with the contents being transported.Featuring his 2-channel sound piece, Dialogo sopra I due massimi sistemi del mondo of 2013, as well as a new series of “Modern Paintings”, this exhibiti-on presents current works from two important work groups by Pavel Büchler. For the text-based Dialogo, the artist has transcribed a fragment from Ga-lileo Galilei’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems of 1632 in Morse code. The sound track to this passage is provided by fog horns from Cape Arago, USA, and from Vancouver. In the text section chosen by Pavel Büchler the protagonists tellingly speak about their doubts and their fears of loss of orientation in view of the radical issues in question. A slight dizziness is in fact appropriate, although today it is caused not so much by the existenti-al oppositions between the Copernican and Ptolemaic world views being debated at the time, as by the media transformations which Pavel Büchler puts the text through. Representational systems are also being argued about here, both com-municative and epistemological.In his long-term project “Modern Paintings”, Pavel Büchler recycles found canvases. In the process of its transformation, the paint is detached off the canvas, the canvas is washed and the patches of paint are re-applied to the canvas reversed back to front in a free patchwork. It may well be a matter of historical chance that simultaneously with the emergence of Concept Art in the 1970s, the idea of recycling also appeared on the political agenda. One way or the other, this is an interesting thought given that both movements are concerned with the economy of the means, with reutilizing processed resources and finding a use for them in a new form. This also involves a certain degree of self-referentiality. The inherent potential of existing materials and objects is sounded out, as is,in the case of art, the inherent potential of ideas. In Büchler’s “Modern Paintings” the concepts of authorship, style and compositi-on are up for discussion as these works involve separating the painted can-vases from their frames or subjecting them to other procedures so as to then integrate them into a puzzle.

Elisabeth Gerber

PAVEL BÜCHLER (*1952, CZ)

Lives and works in Manchester, UK

1970-72 School of Graphic Arts, Prague1973-76 Institute of Applied Arts, Prague1983-87 Co-director, Cambridge Darkroom Gallery1992-96 Head of the School of Fine Art, Glasgow School of Art1997 - Research Professor in Art, Manchester Metropolitan University

Public CollectionsBury Museum and Art Gallery, Bury, United Kingdom; Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom; NorrlandsO-peran, Umeå, Sweden; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgi-um; National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic; Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, United KingdomCentro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, SpainVan Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Neues Museum Wesernburg, Bremen, Germany; Kunst-museum Bern, Bern, Switzerland; National Museum of Photography, Jindrichuv Hradec, Czech Republic; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tampere, Finland; Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic; Albertina, Vienna, Austria; The Arts Council of England, London, United Kingdom; Museum of Art, Olomouc, Czech Republic; Fran-klin Furnace Archive, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Museum of Applied Arts, Prague, Czech Republic; Czech Museum of Fine Art, Prague, Czech Republic

AwardsThe Northern Art Prize, 2010Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists, 2012

Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions

2015�Now and Again, solo exhibition, annex14, Zurich(Honest) Work, Ikon Gallery Birmingham

2014Pavel Büchler, Kunstlerhaus Thurn und Taxis, BregenzBack to Work, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin

2013No returns, Vistamare Gallery, Pescara, ITIdle Thoughts, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Acid & Nicotine, Max Wigram Gallery, LondonNo Time to Paint, (with Paul Czerlitzki),annex14, Zürich

2012Work for Words, annex14, BernNO NEW WORK, Max Wigram Gallery, London

2011 Pavel Büchler, Front Room, Contemporary Art Museum, St. LouisWorking Title (with Evangelia Spiliopoulou), Peep-Hole, Milan

2010 Studio Schwitters, Max Wigram Gallery, LondonAs if it had never ceased to exist, Kunstparterre, MunichLabour in Vain, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague

2009 Unfinished Sentences, annex14, BernSmall Sculptures, Street Level Photoworks, GlasgowL’imitation, Tanya Leighton Gallery, BerlinEclipse, Max Wigram Gallery, London

2008 Hot Air, Sleeper, EdinburghSold Out, Max Wigram Gallery, London

2007 So what?, Objectif_Exhibitions, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, AntwerpPathologische Farben, annex14, Bern Pavel Büchler / Avi Mugrabi / Frances Stark, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

2006 Old, Rare and Unusual Roses, Goethe Institute, DublinAbsentmindedwindowgazing, Kunsthalle Bern, BernPlug-In # 1, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Selected Recent Group Exhibitions

2015

THE PROBLEM OF GOD, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf Time Out: On Lazing about and Doing Nothing, curated by Dörthe Wilke, Sprengel Museum, HannoverModern History vol. 1, curated by Lynda Morris, Grundy Art Gallery, BlackpoolIn an Absolut World True Taste Comes Naturally, curated by Duncan Wooldridge and Kim Schoen, Camberwell Space, London

2014Threshold (curated by Carla Arocha and Stéphane Schraenen), Culturcentrum Me-chelen �The Allegory of a Cave Painting (curated by Mihnea Mircan) Extra City / Middle-heim Museum, Antwerp�On the Devolution of Culture, Rob Tufnell Gallery, London�A Thousand Doors (curated by Iwona Blazwick), NEON / Whitechapel Gallery at The Gennadius Library, Athen�Speaking in Tongues: Sonia Boyce, Pavel Büchler, Susan Hiller (curated by Fran-cis McKee), Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow

2013 Drawing Time, Reading Time (cur. by Claire Gilman), The Drawing Center, New York

Marking Language (cur. by Kate Macfarlane and Mary Doyle), Drawing Room, LondonImage as Witness: Europe and the Arts Council Collection (curated by Helen Kap-linsky), 12 Star Gallery, European Commission, LondonInnsbruck International (curated by Tereza Kotyk), Kreuzgang Servitenkloster, InnsbruckConceptual Geographies: Frames and Documents: Selections from the Ella Fonta-nals-Cisneros Collection (curated by Donald Johnson-Montenegro), The Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York

2012Dot.Systems (curated by Reinhard Spieler and Barbara Scheuermann), Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany

2011Les Marques Aveugles (curated by Katya García-Antón and Emilie Bujès), centre D’Art Contemporain, GenevaArt Boom Festival (curated by Philippe Pirotte and Karolina Kolenda), KrakowWords such as Painting and Sculpture, Annex 14, BernMuseion, BolzanoMy Communism: Poster Exhibition (curated by Yang Zhenzhong, Philippe Pirotte et al), TOP Contemporary art Centre, Shanghai

2010 Under Destruction (curated by Gianni Jetzer and Chris Sharp), Tinguely Museum, Basel ; Swiss Institute, New YorkLandscapes (confini in disordine) (curated by Lorenzo Bruni), Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome No New Thing Under the Sun, Royal Academy of Arts, LondonModern Dialect (curated by Wim van den Abbeele), Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, AntwerpenFischGrätenMelkStand (curated by John Bock), Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin

2009 Inéditos 2009: La vuelta de la esquina (curated by Direlia Lazo), Casa Encendi-da, Madrid

2008 Climate Change, Frieze Projects 2008 (curated by Neville Wakefield), Frieze Art Fair, LondonRe-Reading the Future, International Triennale of Contemporary Art 2008 (cura-ted by Henry Meyric Hughes), National Gallery, Prague

2006 The Grand Promenade (curated by Anna Kafetsi), National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (catalogue)

2005 9th Istanbul Biennial (curated by Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun), Istanbul Alchemy (curated by Bryony Bond), The Manchester Museum, ManchesterOff-Key (curated by Philippe Pirotte), Kunsthalle Bern, Bern